IS THE EYE DESIGNED?

Yes it is designed - Michael Behe

Michael Behe claims that science can only go so far in explaining how organisms develop over time. He argues Darwin’s theory is weakened when he is asked to explain how something as complex as an eye is created by natural selection. (Even Darwin himself thought that this was a tricky one)

Behe uses the term ‘irreducible complexity’ to explain parts of nature which can’t be explained by evolution. An eye consist of many different features that form a process of sensation. The components have no use of their own without each other – so, when they evolved separately, the question is WHY did they evolve? How did they help their owner SURVIVE? They were of no value until they came together.

Michael Behe believes the only way that the eye is possible is if it all was designed/made whole at the start and didn’t go through evolution. He claims the eye is like a mouse trap - if any of the components of the trap was missing, the trap wouldn’t work. The components work in harmony with each other like this because a designer wanted it to be this way. This is same with a human eye if a part was removed the eye wouldn’t work and would be pointless. This concludes Behe’s point that the evolutionary theory fails to explain about how such amazing structures like an eye exist.

Summary: Behe argued the eye is far too complex to be made by evolution and purely random mutations, as all parts of the eye work together in perfect sync to function. Therefore there must be someone who has designed this (God).

“A single system which is composed of several interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, and where the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning”

THE EYE IS NOT DESIGNED

 

However, Richard Dawkins argues against Behe, saying that the eye went through multiple small changes throughout thousands of years. He pointed out that Behe was viewing each stage of evolution as being one massive step, whereas Dawkins believes that each stage of evolution is one tiny little step generation by generation. He began saying how the eye started out as a light sensitive cell, so the organism was able to tell when it was day or night. As the generations went on, the creature began to develop a cone around the light sensitive cells, allowing the organism to see where the light was coming from. As the cone grew through the generations, the organism’s ability to see where the light was coming from increased. It got to a point where the cone only had a small hole which allowed the light sensitive cells to see precisely where the light was coming from and to see a very rough image of their surroundings. He then went on saying how the eye began to grow lenses over their eyes to allow the hole to be protected and to have a more precise image. Dawkins also stated that this happened with many different organisms in many different ways. He used a Swedish scientist’s prediction, what was gained through computer analysis, for how long this would take. It would take roughly 220,000 years which, although is a long time for us, is a very small time for how long the world and the universe is.

Summary: He believes that the eye was created from the process of evolution over millions of years through natural selection. This is possible because the eye formed over such a long period of time that there were ‘baby steps’ towards the production of a fully functioning eye. This started by one mutation which caused the species to see slight light/movement and as this gave them a huge advantage this mutated gene survived (naturally selected) and was passed down generations eventually evolving so much the full eye was formed.